The Imaginary Marriage eBook

“I think it is,” Joan said. “But
then, dear, if he loves me, he could not love you?”

“I think he might,” Ellice said softly.

She was thinking of the morning, of the look she had
seen in his eyes, the awakening look of a man who
sees things he has been blind to.

“I think he might,” her heart echoed.
“I think he might, in time, in a little time.”
And did not know, could not guess, that even at this
moment Johnny Everard, sitting alone in his little
study with untended papers strewn about him, was thinking
of her—­thinking of the look he had seen
in her eyes that very day, out in the sunshine of the
fields.

“So you came to me to tell me. It was brave
of you?”

“I had to come. I could not have come if
you had been different from what you are.”

“Then, even though I am taking away the man
you love from you, you do not hate me?”

“Hate you? Sometimes I think I wished I
could—­but I could not. If I had hated
you, if I had thought you cold and hard to all the
world, I would not be here. I have come to plead
to you because you are generous and honest, true and
good. I could not have come otherwise.”

“What must I do, little Ellice?”

“Tell him the truth, if there is—­”

“There is—­yet that could never come
to anything.”

“Why not?”

“Because—­ah, you can’t understand.”

“Still, your heart is not your own; you could
never give it to Johnny Everard.”

“And I must tell him so, and then—­”

“And then you will ask him if he would be content
to live all his life without love, knowing that he
will never, never win your heart, because it would
be impossible.”

“But I have given him my promise, Ellice.”

“I know, I know; and you will not break it,
because you could not break a promise. But you
will tell him this, and offer him his freedom; it
will be for him to decide.”

Joan stood for many moments in silence, her hand still
resting on the girl’s shoulder. Then she
drew Ellice to her; she thrust back the shining hair,
and kissed the girl’s forehead. “I
think—­yes, I think I shall do all this,
Ellice,” she said.

CHAPTER XLIV

POISON

“Johnny! Johnny! Have you gone to
sleep, dear? There is someone here to see you.”

“Eh?” Johnny started into wakefulness,
he huddled his untidy papers together. “I
must have been dozing off. I was thinking.
Con, is Gipsy back yet?”

“Not yet, and I am getting a little anxious
about her; it is almost dusk. But there is someone
here asking for you.”

“Who?”

“A man, a—­a—­gentleman,
I suppose. He looks as if he has been drinking,
though.”

“A nice sort of visitor for a Sunday evening.
What is his name, Con?”

“Slotman.”

“Don’t know it. I suppose I’d
better see him. Wait, I’ll light the lamp.
If Ellice isn’t back soon I shall go and hunt
for her. Do you know which direction she went
in?”